THE  MJJttUNG 


OF  THE 

ETH\C|tti  WOVEWEHT 


FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


W.  L.  SHELDON 

LECTURER  OF  THE  ETH I C A L.  SOC I ET Y  OF  ST.  LOUIS 


1891 


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WBBn] 


£Dttfy  tfye  -Compliments  of  ti^e  lecturer 


TO 

PROF.  FELIX  ADLER, 

UNDER  WHOM  I  SERVED  MY  APPRENTICESHIP 


FOR  TWO  YEARS 


IN  NEW  YORK  CITY, 


THIS  ADDRESS  IS  GRATEFULLY  DEDICATED, 


“  The  Free  Man  meditates  on  life  rather  than  on  death.”— Bene¬ 
dict  Spinoza. 


“  The  true  dignity  and  excellence  of  man  lies  in  his  moral 
qualities,  that  is,  in  virtue ;  virtue  is  the  common  inheritance  of 
all.”— From  a  Translation  of  The  Encyclical  Letter  of  Pope  Leo 
XIII.  on  “  The  Condition  of  Labor." 


Ttje  Mear>ii)^  of  bt>e  Ethical 
iVloYeEp^pb. 


I. 

What  is  the  significance  of  the  new  Empha¬ 
sis  on  Ethics  which  is  so  manifest  both  in 
Europe  and  America  ?  It  would  almost  seem 
as  though  a  different  spirit  were  abroad. 
What  does  it  imply?  We  have  been  asked 
this  question  again  and  again.  It  appears  to 
be  assumed  that  we  could  answer  it  in  a  sin¬ 
gle  word.  There  are  so  many  different  meth¬ 
ods  by  which  to  grasp  or  express  the  meaning 
of  reforms.  Men  do  not  appreciate  the  con¬ 
trast  between  movements  that  can  define 
themselves  through  a  body  of  formulas  or  a 
declaration  of  principles,  and  others  which  can 
only  explain  their  purpose  as  a  spirit  or  ten¬ 
dency.  It  is  this  latter  characteristic  which 
illustrates  the  new  emphasis  now  being  laid 
on  Ethics.  It  has  no  creed,  but  it  is  rather  a 
spirit.  It  is  not  a  particular  reform,  but  a 
world-tendency . 


4 


We  are  to  remember  that  whatever  deals 
with  human  character  as  such,  is  also  linked 
with  emotions;  and  we  cannot  define  the  lat¬ 
ter  in  mathematical  speech.  When  I  ask  a 
person  what  does  he  cling  to  life  for,  he  may 
know  perfectly  well ;  but  he  cannot  put  it  in 
words  or  express  it  in  a  single  sentence.  We 
judge  a  man’s  nature  by  what  he  does.  In 
the  same  way  we  are  to  make  up  our  minds 
with  regard  to  historic  movements  and  re¬ 
forms,  by  what  they  are  trjdng  to  do,  by  the 
spirit  they  display,  or  by  the  trend  of  charac¬ 
ter  that  may  be  observed,  and  not  by  any  dec¬ 
laration  of  principles. 

It  would  be  quite  impossible  to  locate  this 
new  Emphasis  on  Ethics  among  any  particular 
body  of  men.  It  is  becoming  apparent  every¬ 
where.  The  universities  of  learning  and  the 
schools  of  philosophy  give  signs  of  it.  We 
may  discern  it  in  the  late  encyclical  letter  of 
the  Pontiff.  It  is  manifest  among  the  laity 
and  the  clergy ;  it  is  felt  deeply  outside  and 
inside  of  the  churches.  No  institution  and 
no  class  of  men  may  claim  exclusive  monopo¬ 
ly  of  this  new  tendency. 

We  refer  to  it  as  new .  By  that  I  do  not 
wish  to  imply  that  it  has  just  appeared  in  the 
world.  On  the  contrary,  we  could  rather  say 


5 


that,  as  a  teaching,  it  had  its  birth  among 
the  great  Ethical  Leaders  of  by-gone  ages — 
Buddha  and  Socrates,  Isaiah  or  Jesus.  The 
6  6 Sermon  on  the  Mount”  is  distinctively  and 
more  than  anything  else  a  discourse  in  Ethics. 
When,  therefore,  we  refer  to  it  as  new,  we 
think  of  it  rather,  as  in  part,  only  a  revival. 
We  are  only  sounding  a  neglected  chord  in 
history.  Men  have  to  take  up  once  more  an 
aspect  of  religion,  awakened  chiefly  by  those 
inspired  seers  of  earlier  times.  They  were 
the  leaders.  We  have  to  carry  it  on,  although 
we  may  be  the  modest  and  reverent  disciples 
of  their  spirit,  rather  than  of  their  exact 
teaching.  I  can  but  feel  that  that  is  what 
they  themselves  would  have  preferred  that 
we  should  do. 

This  emphasis  in  the  direction  of  Ethics 
means,  if  it  means  anything,  that  instead  of 
consecrating  human  attention  and  enthusiasm 
on  worship,  we  are  to  concentrate  it  rather  on 
the  ivciy  we  live  and  work.  It  indicates,  there¬ 
fore,  a  reversal  from  the  usual  process  of 
teaching.  We  are  to  pay  regard  to  human 
character  more  than  to  what  men  believe.  A 
>  man’s  conduct  may  determine  more  clearly 
just  what  he  is,  than  his  opinions  about  the 
Deity. 


6 


There  is  this  one  difference  between  ordi¬ 
nary  beliefs  and  those  that  are  concerned  with 
religion.  The  latter  are  something  which  can 
not  in  the  full  sense  be  imparted  through  in¬ 
struction.  They  may  be  accepted  in  that  way 
by  the  mind,  but  they  do  not  then  become  an 
essential  element  in  a  man’s  whole  self.  They 
have  to  grow  out  of  a  person’s  own  life  and 
experience,  else  they  cannot  well  have  perma¬ 
nent  influence.  What  a  man  is,  rather  than 
what  he  has  been  taught,  is  liable  to  deter¬ 
mine  what  he  actually  thinks  about  God.  The 
important  consideration,  therefore,  would  be, 
rather  to  awaken  the  spirit  of  that  Being  in  a 
man’s  heart,  than  to  fill  his  mind  with  a  cer¬ 
tain  belief  about  that  Being.  The  great  con¬ 
sideration  would  be  to  induce  men  to  care  more 
to  live  the  kind  of  a  life  followed  by  Jesus, 
than  to  throw  the  emphasis  of  feeling  and  en¬ 
thusiasm  on  the  worship  of  Jesus.  Instead 
of  preaching  belief  in  a  Deity,  love  of  Christ 
or  faith  in  the  Bible,  would  it  not  be  better 
to  endeavor  to  develop  that  kind  of  heart  in 
men,  to  stimulate  that  form  of  outer  and  in¬ 
ner  life,  by  which  they  would  be  lead  of  their 
j  own  accord  to  come  to  the  True  Love,  the 
True  Faith,  or  the  True  Belief. 

Religious  teachers  everywhere,  I  believe, 


7 


are  becoming  conscious  that  something  must 
be  done  to  put  an  end  to  this  appalling  differ¬ 
ence  between  what  a  man  believes  and  the 
way  he  lives.  If  making  him  believe  justj 
right  does  not  induce  him  to  live  just  right, 
possibly  a  reversal  of  that  method  would  be 
more  successful.  It  is  essential  that  some¬ 
thing  be  done,  aud  that  quickly,  toward  re¬ 
fining  and  elevating  human  character.  It 
may  be  possible  to  accomplish  this  by  turning 
human  attention  toward  what  the  world  is 
suffering,  toward  the  needs  of  our  fellow  men, 
toward  the  perfection  and  purification  of  our 
inward  nature,  just  as  much  as  through  the 
sublime  Sacraments  of  the  Church.  Religious 
people  are  as  a  rule  much  more  fond  of  the 
“Gospel  of  St.  John”  thap  they  are  of  the 
“SermorT'bn  the  Mount.”  That  beautiful 
Gospel  gives  rich  emotions ;  it  kindles  love 
and  adoration.  The  trouble  with  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  has  been  that  it  exacts  too 
much ;  nevertheless  it  is  true  that  if  more  at¬ 
tention  is  not  given  to  that  Sermon,  that  is, 
if  more  emphasis  is  not  laid  on  Ethics,  we 
may  begin  to  observe  a  decline  in  the  power 
or  influence  of  Judaism  or  Christianity.  Peo¬ 
ple  much  prefer  the  emotional  to  an  applied 
religion.  But  applied  religion  means  an  Ethi¬ 
cal  Movement. 


8 


It  is  to  be  understood  that  I  am  simply  giv¬ 
ing  a  personal  opinion  on  this  great  problem, 
at  the  close  of  these  five  years  of  effort.  My 
convictions  on  this  question  come  through  di¬ 
rect  contact  with  men.  This  Ethical  Move¬ 
ment  now  presents  itself  to  me  as  an  existing 
fact.  It  may  have  been  this  long  before,  to 
others ;  but  it  had  not  been  so  to  my  own  con¬ 
sciousness.  I  have  seen  it  to  some  extent  do 
actual  work.  It  has  grown  and  developed  in 
my  thought,  from  this  experience  and  these 
observations ;  and  now  it  stands  before  me  in 
another  and  a  brighter  light,  than  when 
the  first  word  was  said  here  five  years  ago. 
For  me  it  has  stood  the  test.  It  has  been 
tried  on ;  it  lias  accomplished  results ;  it  has 
influenced  men  in  their  lives ;  it  has  altered 
their  spirit.  It  is  not  a  question  whether  the 
outcome  has  been  little  or  much ;  that  does 
not  affect  my  own  thought,  whatever  influence 
it  may  have  on  other  people.  It  has  proven 
to  me  that  men  could  do  something  beside 
“talk  and  speculate.”  I  grow  tired  of  phil¬ 
osophy.  For  ages  the  debate  has  gone  on  as 
to  the  true  idea  of  the  Deity,  the  historic 
value  of  the  Scriptures,  the  relative  worth  of 
the  various  sects  or  religions.  But  amid  all 
the  discussions  there  existed  the  other  press- 


9 


ing  query,  why  something  more  could  not  be 
done  to  influence  the  lives  of  men.  To  make 
one  individual  a  better  man,  to  inspire  him 
with  higher  motives  and  purer  purposes,  may 
be  worth  for  the  future  of  the  world  as  much 
as  to  prove  or  to  disprove  the  historic  value 
of  any  Bible. 

The  one  great  problem  for  me  was,  if  the 
enthusiasm  could  be  concentrated  on  this 
other  issue,  the  way  we  live  and  work,  the 
kind  of  character  we  develop,  and  the  human 
relationship  in  which  we  stand— whether  it 
could  inspire  reforms,  give  strength  to  the 
enfeebled  will,  and  induce  persons  to  labor 
more  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow  men?  If 
it  could  accomplish  that  result  in  the  case  of 
one  single  individual,  the  problem  for  me  was 
settled.  Human  nature  in  its  elements  is 
everywhere  the  same.  It  matters  not  at  the 
present  moment  whether  this  tendency  or 
change  of  emphasis  has  reached  few  or  many. 
If  it  could  have  such  effect  on  one  man,  in 
ages  to  come  it  might  have  the  same  effect  on 
all  the  world.  Little  by  little,  here  and  there 
an  instance,  I  have  seen  this  new  spirit  ac¬ 
complish  that  result. 

And  now  at  the  end  of  these  five  years  of 
work,  my  own  attitude  of  mind  is  taken.  I 


10 


believed  formerly  in  this  work  theoretically 
as  a  possibility.  Throughout  these  various 
years  in  all  the  efforts,  it  has  never  crossed 
my  mind  to  doubt  it.  To-day  I  believe  in  it 
as  an  established  fact.  From  this  time  on 
this  new  spirit  or  tendency  that  I  see  spread¬ 
ing  abroad,  is  lifted  for  me  above  the  question 
of  momentary  success  or  failure.  It  makes 
no  difference  to  me  now  in  my  belief  with  re¬ 
gard  to  it,  whether  any  special  effort  in  this 
direction  triumphs  or  succeeds.  If  I  knew 
that  after  another  generation  the  movement 
were  to  die  out,  the  new  emphasis  to  have 
lost  its  force,  if  there  should  not  be  a  single 
person  in  all  the  two  hemispheres  lifting  up 
his  voice  for  this  other  aspect  of  religion,  if 
there  were  no  organized  effort  in  this  new  di¬ 
rection,  it  would  not  alter  in  the  slightest  de¬ 
gree  my  personal  conviction.  From  the  little 
that  has  come  under  my  observation  in  these 
last  few  years,  it  now  stands  to  me  as  indubi¬ 
table  belief,  that  in  the  ages  to  come — though 
when  and  how  far  off  I  cannot  say — this 
spirit  or  tendency  amid  every  change,  will  be 
the  one  securely  surviving  fact  for  the  future 
religion  and  the  future  Church ;  just  as  I  am 
satisfied  that  it  had  its  start  as  a  teaching  in 
those  early  leaders,  whom  we  look  upon  as 


11 


the  founders  of  the  existing  religions  and  the 
existing  Church. 

This  experience  has  established  for  me  the 
fact  that  the  disposition  to  mutual  helpful¬ 
ness  lies  back  in  human  nature,  and  is  prior 
!in  its  origin  to  any  or  all  specific  religions. 
It  has  made  certain  in  my  mind  the  fact  that 
the  human  will  has  something  to  lean  upon  in 
itself ;  that  there  is  a  craving  after  a  higher 
life  in  the  human  consciousness,  whence¬ 
soever  this  spirit  may  have  been  given.  And 
I  stand  as  firm  to-day  in  the  conviction,  from 
practical  experience,  as  I  stood  five  years  ago 
from  abstract  reflection,  that  this  moral  im¬ 
pulse,  with  its  hunger  after  righteousness, 
will  rise  into  ever  greater  and  greater  signifi¬ 
cance,  as  human  nature  advances  to  a  clearer 
comprehension  of  its  own  character  and  pos¬ 
sibilities. 

Human  nature  has  a  saving  motive  in  itself, 
whencesovever  the  saving  power  may  come. 
We  can  trust  to  this,  and  rely  on  it  in  hope¬ 
fulness,  whatever  possible  changes  may  or 
may  not  come  in  the  world’s  historic  faiths. 

What  this  new  Emphasis  on  Ethics  is  to 
mean,  could,  of  course,  be  expressed  in  a  bare, 
abstract  form.  It  implies  a  deeper  under¬ 
standing  of  a  certain  truth  ;  and,  on  the  other 


12 


hand,  it  conveys  the  greater  appreciation  of 
the  way  that  truth  should  manifest  itself  in 
human  society.  We  carry  in  our  minds  the 
consciousness  that  from  earliest  times  the  at¬ 
tention  of  mankind  has  been  centred  on  the 
two  ideas,  of  “God”  and  the  “Law  of 
Right.”  But  there  is  another  fact  that  has 
been  slowly  developing  in  the  thoughts  of 
men,  and  that  is,  that  this  something  called 
“  The  Law  of  Right  ”  stands  in  equal  conse¬ 
quence  to  what  we  call  “God.”  It,  too,  is 
immutable  and  unchangeable,  which  “  was  in 
the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world 
without  end.”  To  this  Law  of  Right  we  are 
to  pay  the  same  respect,  awe  and  reverence, 
which  we  may  also  pay  to  the  idea  of  God, 
This  would  be  the  abstract  truth  conveyed  to 
us  in  the  Sovereignty  of  Ethics. 

Ethical  science  is  to  establish  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  Law  of  Right-Living,  which  we  are  to 

1  implicitly  obey,  just  as  the  science  of  theology 
may  strive  to  establish  the  truth  that  there  is 
*  a  Deity,  whom  we  are  loyally  to  worship. 
This  law  should  hold  and  continue  firm,  exact 
the  same  unswerving  submission  from  our  will¬ 
power,  independent  of  whatever  might  occur 
or  of  whatever  changes  might  take  place,  in 
that  other  science  of  theology.  This  was  the 


13 


abstract  truth,  which  came  to  me,  as  it  has  to 
many  others,  and  that  I  have  wanted  to  teach 
and  preach  and  help  to  establish  in  the  minds 
of  other  people.  This  was  the  point  to  which 
I  had  come,  on  leaving  the  library,  the  study 
or  the  university. 

But  it  has  to  be  acknowledged  that  my  un¬ 
derstanding  of  the  actual  meaning  of  this 
work  and  what  it  has  to  do,  has  changed  very 
much,  because  it  has  become  enlarged  for  me. 
Experience  can  do  for  a  man’s  opinion  what 
all  the  thought  and  study  in  the  library  can 
never  accomplish.  It  is  one  thing  to  have  a 
certain  belief  which  you  have  formed  through 
long  reading  and  speculation  in  the  history  of 
human  thought,  or  in  the  world’s  universal 
history ;  it  is  something  quite  different  to  try  it 
on ,  to  put  it  to  the  test  in  daily  life,  where 
history  is  now  being  made.  The  libraries  are 
crowded  in  their  upper  shelves  with  such  worn- 
out  beliefs  or  reflections.  No  man  ever  takes 
down  those  dust-covered  volumes,  save  the 
antiquarian. 

The  schools  of  learning  and  the  daily  life  of 
the  great  majority  of  men  constitute  two  differ¬ 
ent  worlds.  They  rarely  come  in  direct  touch 
with  one  another.  We  lead  such  a  peculiar 
existence  in  universities.  We  are  absorbed  in 


Plato  or  Buddhism.  Homer  and  Francis  Ba¬ 
con  are  as  near  to  us  as  our  next-door  neigh¬ 
bors.  It  is  a  life  of  pure  reflection.  Within 
that  atmosphere  of  intellectual  activity  we 
think  on  the  world’s  problem.  We  decide 
about  human  needs  and,  perhaps,  work  out  in 
our  thoughts  the  formula  by  which  to  estab¬ 
lish  or  bring  about  the  millennium.  We  trav¬ 
el  and  observe,  we  try  the  various  universi¬ 
ties;  and  then,  when  we  assume  that  we  are 
ready,  the  task  begins  of  going  out  and  put¬ 
ting  the  thing  into  operation.  We  undertake 
to  bring  our  discoveries  to  the  every  day  ex¬ 
perience  of  men.  We  fancy  that  the  world  is 
eager  and  waiting  to  be  helped.  We  are 
ready  with  our  intellectual  panacea ;  we  set 
about  to  apply  our  formula  and  change  the 
world. 

What  a  shock  we  have  when  we  once  be¬ 
gin  the  effort !  What  a  shiver  of  dismay  runs 
through  our  veins  when  we  set  out  to  effect 
these  changes  and  bring  about  this  higher  life 
among  men !  It  was  all  so  charming  in  those 
moss-grown  seats  of  learning,  where  the  pro¬ 
blem  of  life  was  only  an  intellectual  enigma 
that  could  be  solved  by  a  process  of  thinking ! 
And  then  we  discover  that  the  world  outside 
is  leading  an  entirely  different  life  and  takes 


15 


interest  in  altogether  different  things.  It  has 
little  concern  about  the  study  of  history ;  it 
cares  less  for  abstract  speculation ;  it  does  not 
know  very  much  what  we  mean  by  pure  re¬ 
flection.  The  man  in  the  library  has  been 
solving  the  world’s  problem.  The  man  out¬ 
side  at  work  has  been  solving  the  other  and 
more  important  question,  of  what  to  do  with¬ 
in  the  next  twenty-four  hours.  We  discover 
by  going  out  among  men,  that  they  are  much 
more  interested  in  real  living ,  than  in  abstract 
reflection  about  the  nature  of  life.  What 
people  want  is  a  religion  for  what  they  are 
doing,  rather  than  a  world-philosophy.  At 
last  the  student  and  thinker,  after  chafing  in¬ 
ternally  at  what  he  considers  the  grubbing 
existence  of  the  every-day  man,  wakes  up 
some  morning  to  the  sudden  conviction  that 
he  has  been  wrong  in  his  method  and  that  the 
other  man  was  right.  Reforms  cannot  have 
their  full  genesis  in  the  library  or  the  univer¬ 
sity. 

Will  it  be  forgiven  me  if  I  am  to  this  ex¬ 
tent  personal  in  saying  that  this  has  been  my 
own  experience !  I,  too,  wanted  to  help  or 
reform  the  world  with  a  philosophy.  There 
was,  in  my  thought,  an  intellectual  panacea. 
According  to  my  fancy,  the  result  was  to  be 


16 


accomplished  by  getting  at  the  minds  of  men 
and  altering  their  convictions.  What  I  dis¬ 
covered  was,  that  the  something  men  want¬ 
ed,  was  not  a  philosophy  of  existence,  but 
an  answer  to  the  question,  “  What  is  to  be 
done  just  now?”  Life  at  this  particular 
moment  is  the  pressing  problem.  Religious 
teachers  are  to  be  interested  in  what  the  rest 
of  the  world  is  interested.  Practical  life  is 
what  calls  for  our  attention.  Frankly,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  I  have  learned 
more  in  this  respect  from  the  men  I  sought 
to  help,  than  I  have  been  able  to  give  help  to 
them.  Instead  of  endeavoring  to  draw  men 
away  from  this  intense,  on-rushing  life  of  the 
world,  up  into  the  pure  life  of  the  spirit;  it 
became  plain  to  me  that  the  thing  to  be  striven 
for,  was  to  put  the  life  of  the  spirit  out  into 
that  eager,  on-rushing  life  of  the  world. 

It  may  do  very  well  to  constantly  lay  stress 
in  beautiful  or  abstract  form  on  the  principle 
of  righteousness.  Religious  teaching  has  been 
doing  that,  at  least  to  some  extent,  for  the 
last  three  thousand  years.  But  the  trouble 
has  been,  and  still  is,  that  men  are  very  much 
disposed  to  have  lofty  feelings  about  right¬ 
eousness,  while  going  on  living  just  as  before; 
precisely  as  men  have  been  inclined  to  worship 


17 


the  Deity,  rather  than  to  have  in  their  hearts 
the  real  spirit  of  God. 

The  new  Emphasis  on  Ethics  cannot  stop 
with  merely  talking  about  the  abstract  truth. 
We  shall  accomplish  very  little  by  merely 
throwing  the  stress  of  our  enthusiasm  on  the 
idea.  The  pressure  of  attention  needs  to  be 
rather  on  this  Law  of  Eight-Living  as  put  in 
actual  operation ;  so  as  to  find  those  methods 
by  which  we  can  realize  it  in  concrete  form 
in  the  world.  It  is  just  at  this  point  where 
is  to  come  the  distinguishing  feature  of  this 
new  tendency.  Eeligious  teaching  has  been 
losing  its  influence  on  the  public  mind,  be¬ 
cause  it  could  not  apply  itself  to  the  actual 
daily  affairs  of  human  life.  It  has  been  al¬ 
most  impossible  to  find  the  bond  between  the 
week  day  and  the  Sunday.  Whether,  by 
throwing  the  stress  on  moral  questions,  it 
may  be  possible  to  restore  the  right  kind  of 
hold  for  religion,  is  the  problem  to  be  solved 
by  a  true  Ethical  Movement. 

What  has  to  be  done  is  to  shift  the  stress 
of  attention  in  public  religious  teaching  to  a 
different  line  of  subjects.  There  needs  to  be 
an  appeal  to  another  class  of  emotions.  In¬ 
stead  of  saying  so  much  about  worship,  we 
are  rather  to  bring  human  thinking  to  the 


18 


practical  questions  of  right  and  wrong.  We 
should  touch  on  those  issues  which  are  not 
far  away,  or  concerned  almost  exclusively 
with  the  life  beyond  the  grave,  but  those  also 
which  press  close,  very  close,  on  the  life 
of  the  week  day.  Men  are  rather  to  be 
made  to  think  how  they  are  living;  they 
should  have  their  attention  called  to  the  mis¬ 
takes  in  their  doing.  Practical  righteousness 
is  now  the  theme  which  calls  for  burning  at¬ 
tention.  It  is  the  habits  of  life  which  are 
being  neglected,  the  human  relations  that  are 
being  forgotten.  We  are  living,  and  must 
live,  the  life  of  the  world.  Men  are  not  given 
now-a-days  a  gospel  by  which  to  preserve  the 
finer  feelings,  while  living  that  life;  the  mo¬ 
tives  for  obedience  to  the  sense  of  Duty  are 
not  stirred  01  worked  upon,  while  men  are  in 
the  world.  We  must  bridge  over  this  chasm. 
We  are  not  to  make  the  religious  secular,  but 
to  make  all  that  is  secular  truly  religious. 
How  we  are  to  live  just  at  this  moment,  what 
is  my  duty  at  this  immediate  hour,  how  am  I 
to  act  in  my  relations  with  my  fellow  men, 
what  are  my  responsibilites  to  the  family,  to 
the  city  or  the  state?  These  are  the  burning 
questions  that  need  to  be  discussed  and  agi¬ 
tated. 


19 


II. 

What  is  needed  is  that  we  should  lay  stress 
on  just  those  special  elements  of  religion, 
which  are  quite  independent  of  any  changes 
that  may  come  through  historic  research  or 
philosophical  speculation.  This,  it  appears 
to  me,  would  be  the  one  method,  by  which  to 
make  the  religious  spirit  absolutely  sure  and 
abiding  for  all  coming  time.  There  is  just 
one  place  to  look  for  those  elements,  and  that 
is  in  human  nature  itself.  That  is  the  one 
thing  which  is  universal.  What  we  find  there 
is  sure ;  because  every  man  can  know  it  by 
looking  directly  into  his  own  consciousness. 
Philosophy  or  science  cannot  touch  it. 

There  should  be  something  upon  which  all 
men  could  sympathize.  The  Brahmin,  Mo¬ 
hammedan,  Jew  and  Christian  all  have  a  com¬ 
mon  human  nature.  There  should  be  some¬ 
thing  in  them  all,  which  could  draw  them  all 
together. 

Now  I  believe  there  is  one  element  or  fact 
universal  in  human  consciousness,  and  that  is 
the  desire  to  be  a  better  man .  It  may  exist 
very  faintly;  it  may  almost  perish  from  the 
heart.  We  may  have  become  practically  cal¬ 
lous  to  the  desire ;  but  it  has  been  in  us  at  some 


20 


time  or  another  in  the  course  of  our  lives. 
No  man  in  the  depths  of  his  feelings  really 
is  altogether  content  with  what  he  is  just  at 
this  moment;  he  would  always  like  to  be 
something  else,  a  trifle  better,  a  little  further 
along  in  the  scale  of  being.  On  this  one  is¬ 
sue  the  difference  between  men  is  only  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  degree.  All  persons  could  join  hands 
on  this  one  element  of  religion,  whether  it  be 
the  Bedouin  Arab,  the  African  savage,  or 
Balph  Waldo  Emerson. 

Why  not  make  this  the  starting  point 
for  the  new  effort  in  reform?  Why  not 
work  on  this  universal  desire?  We  all  want 
to  be  better  ourselves ;  we  would  like  to  have 
more  perfect  relations  with  men;  we  would 
be  glad  to  have  a  higher  social  ideal. 

The  new  Emphasis  on  Ethics  therefore 
would  have  for  its  purpose,  to  bring  to  the 
foreground  this  universal  desire  for  something 
better  and  higher  in  ourselves  and  in  human 
society.  It  would  have  for  the  subjects  of  its 
consideration  every  sphere  where  this  motive 
or  element  could  enter  and  be  of  consequence. 
For  example,  it  implies  that  we  should  give 
supreme  attention  to  such  problems  as  “What 
is  Justice?”  It  reminds  us  that  we  are  to 
study  and  dwell  on  the  theme  “How  Shall  we 


21 


Preserve  and  Develop  the  Higher  Life  ?  ’  ’  It 
indicates  that  we  are  to  take  up  such  ques¬ 
tions  as  “The  Ethics  of  Trades-Unionism.” 
It  thrusts  onus the  subject  “Can  a  Man  be 
Strictly  Honest  and  be  Successful  in  Busi¬ 
ness?”  It  reminds  us  that  if  we  do  not  give 
more  concern  to  these  problems,  religion  it¬ 
self  will  die  out  in  the  world.  It  would  have 
us  consider  what  kind  of  motives  we  should 
most  encourage  and  develop  in  the  human 
heart,  for  the  sake  of  ourselves  and  our  fellow 
men. 

It  would  not  have  us  forget  that  there  is  a 
moral  element  in  our  political  institutions. 
We  are  to  study  the  influence  of  Jefferson 
and  Hamilton  and  what  they  have  done  for 
us  in  this  regard,  just  as  religious  teachers 
used  to  study  exclusively  the  work  of  David 
or  Saul  and  what  they  had  done  for  the  his¬ 
tory  of  Israel.  Every  nation  is  a  chosen  peo¬ 
ple.  It  is  all  sacred  history.  We  must  search 
for  the  moral  element  everywhere.  We  are 
to  see  how  it  has  appeared  and  what  influence 
it  has  exerted,  through  the  great  minds,  such 
as  George  Eliot,  Humboldt  or  Shakespeare. 
We  are  to  think  of  the  lives  of  leading  men 
in  past  history,  catch  the  stimulus  of  their 
effort,  and  make  them  an  influence  still.  We 


22 


are  to  look  for  the  good  everywhere ;  to  lose 
no  trace  of  it  wherever  it  may  have  appeared. 
We  are  to  keep  this  particular  element  of  re¬ 
ligion  persistently  before  human  attention. 
We  are  not  to  admit  that  there  is  anything 
secular ;  we  must  make  it  all  divinely  religious. 
In"  a  word,  we  are  to  be  pressing,  always 
pressing  forward  the  perpetual  query,  6  6 What 
is  True  Righteousness?” 

And  I  believe,  in  the  true  sense,  we  are  to 
apply  to  this  our  purpose  —  in  all  reverence 
and  single-heartedness  —  the  same  degree  of 
ardor  and  enthusiasm,  the  same  high  feeling, 
the  same  sense  of  awe  and  consecration,  which 
men  have  been  accustomed  to  feel  and  display 
exclusively  when  they  talked  about  Jesus  or 
about  God. 

The  moral  element  is  sacred  everywhere. 
True  devotion  may  consist  not  only  in  uttering 
beautiful  thoughts  or  feelings  about  the  Infi¬ 
nite  and  Unchangeable,  but  also  in  the  kind  of 
life  we  lead,  or  in  the  kind  of  character  we  de¬ 
velop.  This  element  is  the  divine  thread  run¬ 
ning  through  history.  Instead  of  giving  our 
exclusive  attention  to  the  source  whence  it 
comes,  shall  we  not  also  think  and  reflect  on 
the  thing  itself?  How  to  make  this  life  on 
earth  better  and  higher  —  that  is  the  theme 


23 


which  at  the  present  moment  should  be  the 
supreme  object  of  human  attention;  and  in 
-‘giving  it  that  degree  of  interest,  in  the  best 
sense,  we  are  paying  the  truest  worship  to  the 
Infinite  Power  that  men  call  God. 

It  is  true  that  this  new  movement  can  never 
draw  to  itself  the  general  enthusiasm  that 
may  be  given  to  the  study  of  science  or  his¬ 
tory.  There  is  another  purpose  in  view.  A 
different  kind  of  feeling  is  awakened.  Those 
who  make  a  special  study  of  history  and  natu¬ 
ral  science,  are  usually  disposed  to  lay  stress 
on  the  fact  of  universal  progress, — on  the 
tendency  upward  in  nature  and  the  human 
world.  What  the  Ethical  Teacher  has  to  do 
is  precisely  the  contrary.  He  is  to  discour¬ 
age  men  from  trusting  to  the  outside  meth¬ 
ods  or  to  the  results  of  nature.  He  has  to 
stir  them  to  feel  that  what  they  have  to  do, 
is  to  render  their  share  in  helping  forward 
this  progress.  He  has  to  dwell  constantly  on 
selfishness  everywhere ;  he  has  to  point  out 
the  difference  between  class  and  class ;  he  has 
to  lay  stress  on  the  lack  of  business  integrity; 
he  is  forced  to  be  always  telling  men  that  the 
world  is  not  going  to  be  any  better  unless 
they  make  it  better  themselves.  Bare  study 
in  science  and  history,  leads  men  to  feel  com- 


24 


fortable.  It  awakens  a  trust  in  the  law  of 
evolution.  It  induces  people  to  sit  still  and 
|think  the  world  is  going  to  develop  itself.  „ 
What  this  other  teaching  has  to  do  is  to  awaken 
a  practical  sense  of  discomfort ;  to  make  men 
unhappy ;  to  arouse  in  them  a  feeling  of  dis¬ 
quiet, — -in  order  that  they  may  be  impressed 
with  the  circumstance  that  it  rests  upon  them 
to  do  a  portion  of  the  world’s  work;  that,  in 
a  word,  they  are  to  be  the  agents  themselves 
to  bring  about  this  evolution. 

For  this  reason,  it  may  be  assumed  that 
this  new  tendency  is  a  radical  movement.  We 
touch  at  this  point  on  the  difference  between 
the  true  radical  and  the  true  conservative. 
The  latter  individual  is  said  to  lay  stress  on 
the  circumstance  that  the  present  situation  is 
about  as  good  as  the  conditions  admit  of,  and 
that,  if  changes  are  needed,  they  come  them¬ 
selves  by  the  process  of  evolution.  The  rad¬ 
ical  always  feels  that  the  world  can  and  ought 
to  be  better,  and  that  we  can  make  it  better  if 
we  try.  Science  and  history  do  their  work 
on  the  mincf;  ethics  lias  to  influence  the  will. 

It  is  a  painful  task  always  to  be  asserting  the 
unfavorable  conditions.  It  would  be  easy  and 
pleasant  to  take  the  attitude  of  the  optimist. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  majority  of  men 


25 


will  always  incline  enough,  as  it  is,  to  that 
position;  they  will  only  be  pessimists  with 
regard  to  what  might  happen  to  themselves. 
The  truth,  nevertheless,  stands  fixed  and 
plain:  The  world  is  not  right!  What  we 
have  to  do  is  to  change  and  improve  it.  To 
emphasize  and  repeat  over  and  over  again 
this  assertion,  must  be  one  of  the  functions 
of  the  new  Ethical  Movement. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  also  that  this  move¬ 
ment  can  never,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word, 
become  popular  with  men.  It  may  be  many 
generations,  if  not  centuries,  before  it  can 
have  the  sympathy  of  the  millions.  Its  stress 
must  always  be  on  the  less  tangible  elements 

of  reform.  Its  leaders  must  be  idealists. 

■  -  ■  •  -  - 

Their  interest  and  enthusiasm  will  be  cen¬ 
tered  on  the  changes  which  are  to  be  effected 
in  individual  character,  rather  than  in  the 
transformation  to  be  brought  about  in  the 
social  organism.  But  the  average  world  is 
more  interested  in  externals.  Men  cannot  all 
of  them  be  idealists.  What  is  outside  of  us 
must  absorb  a  great  deal  of  human  attention ; 
naturally  the  majority  will  be  thinking  rather 
of  the  changes  there .  The  Ethical  Teacher  will 
also  be  interested  in  those  changes,  but  he 
will  always  be  looking  at  them  with  the  ulte- 


26 


rior  purpose,  as  to  how  they  are  going  to  per¬ 
manently  influence  the  lives  of  men. 

The  science  of  ethics  must  assume  it  for  a 
fact,  that  the  elemental  source  or  root  of  ac¬ 
tion  is  human  motive.  The  great  problem, 
therefore,  is  how  this  supreme  element  is  to 
be  influenced  and  elevated.  Reforms  which 
do  not  affect  motives,  will  notTcome  to  stay. 
This  new  movement,  therefore,  is  compelled 
rather  to  keep  forward  the  fact  which  has  been 
gathered  from  the  laws  of  all  history,— that 
improvements  in  institutions  can  never  rise 
very  much  above  the  level  of  the  individual 
human  nature  for  which  the  improvement  is 
intended.  This  is  the  one  truth  liable  to  be 
forgotten  by  the  social  agitator.  The  differ¬ 
ence  between  him  and  the  ethical  teacher  must 
be,  therefore,  mainly  a  question  of  stress.  It 
is  quite  true  that  external  changes  must  go 
hand  in  hand  with  reforms  in  the  internal  na¬ 
ture  or  character.  The  two  will  mutually  act 
and  react  upon  one  another.  But  the  neg¬ 
lected  feature  is  more  often  this  element  of 
improvement  in  the  inner  self  of  the  human 
being.  It  is  essential,  therefore,  that  a  cer¬ 
tain  class  of  men  should  lay  the  emphasis  of 
their  teaching  in  this  other  direction.  But, 
at  the  same  time,  it  is  equally  true  that  the 


27 


Ethical  Teacher  should  also  be  something  of 
a  Social  Agitator,  just  as  the  Social  Agitator 
should  be  something  of  an  Ethical  Teacher. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  also  that  this  new  em¬ 
phasis  must  be,  to  some  extent,  cold  and  au¬ 
stere.  There  will  be  less  of  the  emotional  in 
its  efforts,  than  in  the  worship  of  the  super¬ 
natural.  At  the  same  time  this  is  partially  a 
matter  of  accident,  and  may  not  be  a  perma¬ 
nent  condition.  Religious  feelings  have  been 
for  ages  connected  more  especially  with  that 
which  is  remote  and  super-sensible.  What 
goes  on  before  the  eyes  in  the  week-day  life 
of  men,  has  been  too  often  regarded  as  com¬ 
mon-place.  Morality,  right  living,  righteous¬ 
ness,  these  have  suffered;  because  they  are 
almost  exclusively  concerned  with  this  daily 
life  of  men  here  on  earth.  It  takes  a  long 
time  for  a  neglected  element  to  become  en¬ 
shrined  once  more  in  our  most  sacred  feelings. 
But  who  shall  say  that  the  period  may  not 
come,  when  men  shall  transfer  apart  of  those 
feelings  of  awe  and  sacredness  to  what  con¬ 
cerns  just  this  every-day  life ;  until  we  have 
removed  from  human  thought  the  notion  that 
any  event  can  be  common-place  save  to  the 
common-place  soul.  We  may  then  be  able,  in 
»the  full  sense  of  the  word,  to  have  the  Law 


28 


of  Eight-Living  stir  our  hearts  with  all  that  is 
best,  deepest  and  purest  in  religious  emotion. 
The  social  ideals  at  the  present  time  already 
have  that  refining,  exalting  effect  on  certain 
persons.  Men  have  died  for  the  cause  of 
justice,  as  others  have  died  for  their  faith  in 
God. 

It  is  inevitable  also  that  there  should  be 
the  one  noticeable  weakness  in  this  new  Em¬ 
phasis  on  Ethics,  which  always  seems  to  go 
with  a  new  reform  movement.  We  have  to 
confess  it  in  humility  and  shame.  It  has 
been  a  defect  of  the  Eadicalism  which  desires 
changes  or  reforms  in  human  thinking  or 
character,  that  men  usually  want  them  more 
especially  for  other  people .  They  desire 
movements  by  which  they  can  prove  them¬ 
selves  right  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  They 
would  like  to  convince  other  men  of  their  own 
superior  intellectual  position.  They  would 
be  glad  to  have  this  Ethical  Movement  exist 
as  an  agitation  to  establish  freedom  of  thought 
in  religion,  and  to  argue  away  the  beliefs  of 
other  men.  There  are  people  who  would  be 
very  glad  of  reforms  which  would  give  them 
more  of  the  goods  of  this  world ;  but  when  it 
comes  to  reforms  in  their  own  feelings  or 
character,  they  prefer  to  have  other  persons 
make  the  first  experiment. 


29 


But  if  the  new  Emphasis  on  Ethics  has  one 
work  more  than  another  to  do,  it  is  to  make  it 
plain  that  if  men  have  any  care  to  improve 
and  change  the  rest  of  the  world,  they  must 
do  it  by  first  changing  and  improving  them¬ 
selves.  The  higher  religious  spirit,  the  finer 
feelings,  the  purer  elements  of  character, 
come  to  men  less  through  preaching  than 
example.  What  we  have  to  accomplish  is 
to  make  it  plain  to  all.  the  world,  that  whether 
we  may  or  may  not  retain  the  old  beliefs,  we 
still  do  care  to  rise  in  the  moral  sphere,  and 
that  we  still  have  it  in  us  as  a  motive  to  labor 
for  the  welfare  of  our  fellow  men.  If  we 
ever  prove  this  in  our  own  lives,  then  even 
though  we  never  preach  nor  teach,  nor  organ¬ 
ize  a  Church,  we  shall  have  laid  the  founda¬ 
tion  for  a  new  Ethical  Movement. 

No,  the  higher  Radicalism  has  another  task 
before  it.  We  are  at  the  critical  epoch  in 
human  history  when  the  aspirations  of  men 
are  at  the  moment  of  decline  or  shipwreck. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  convincing  persons  as 
to  this  or  that  or  the  other  position,  either  in 
morality  or  the  sphere  of  religion.  Men  do 
not  change  their  elementary  beliefs  from  ar¬ 
gument.  I  care  not  whether  other  individuals 
^accept  my  particular  utterances  or  opinions. 


30 


It  is  not  a  question  of  laying  down  or  estab¬ 
lishing  any  special  theory  of  reform.  It  is 
rather  the  consideration  of  persuading  our¬ 
selves  and  other  men,  to  view  this  life  of  ours 
in  all  its  details  from  another  and  higher 
standpoint.  What  we  need  to  do  is  to  induce 
men  to  think,  think,  think  on  these  questions 
in  the  sphere  of  morality. 

The  great  purpose  before  us  to-day  is  not 
to  eliminate  or  do  away  with  other  men’s  be¬ 
liefs  ;  but  to  put  down  if  we  can  that  con¬ 
temptible  parvenue  called  64  expediency,” 
which  more  than  anything  else  is  making  rot¬ 
ten  our  whole  modern  civilization.  The  world 
is  beginning  to  talk  about  character  as  men 
talk  about  the  tariff.  It  is  what  they  call 
business.  It  is  just  these  habits  of  mind 
which  are  so  perilous.  If  we  can  once  change 
this  way  of  looking  at  things ,  I  feel  that  the 
final  result  will  take  care  of  itself.  If  men 
will  let  that  desire,  to  be  better  themselves 
and  to  have  a  better  human  society,  act  as 
a  motive  and  as  a  consideration  in  their  think¬ 
ing  and  their  conduct,  then  in  the  long  run 
this  other  higher  habit  of  mind  will  shape 
life  and  our  social  institutions  in  the  right 
direction.  What  a  man  is  interested  in,  the 
way  he  has  of  looking  at  things,  will  have 


31 


more  influence  with  him  than  any  particular 
views  or  opinions  that  we  may  give  him.  A 
true  Ethical  Movement  therefore  need  not 
concern  itself  with  giving  special  opinions  or 
theories.  Its  works  should  be,  to  be  con¬ 
stantly  viewing  life  from  this  other  standpoint, 
treating  every  issue  from  this  higher  consid¬ 
eration  ;  and  so,  little  by  little,  more  and  more, 
influencing  these  interests  and  general  habits 
of  viewing  the  world. 

What  matters  it,  therefore,  whether  the 
ethical  leaders  may  be  right  or  wrong  in  their 
specific  opinions  on  particular  questions ! 
What  they  are  to  accomplish  is  not  to  con¬ 
vert  men  to  their  personal  views ;  it  is  rather, 
by  giving  utterance  to  these  other  feelings,  by 
constantly  discussing  questions  from  this  oth¬ 
er  stand-point,  that  they  stamp  it  on  the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  men,  that  there  is  some  other 
kind  of  a  standard  than  this  vile  upstart  termed 
Expediency.  If  we  do  not  effect  this,  nature 
itself  will  make  us  feel  the  penalty.  These 
“treasures  of  earth”  can  no  more  be  taken  up 
into  the  soul,  than  they  can  be  carried  with  us 
to  Heaven. 

This  Emphasis  on  Ethics  has  changed  some¬ 
what  in  its  meaning  for  me.  It  was  to  me,  for 
the  most  part,  a  series  of  negative  proposi- 


32 


tions.  To-day  it  is  something  positive  and 
real.  I  have  done  with  the  spirit  of  denial. 
My  consciousness  is  filled  with  the  one  thought, 
that  we  have  a  work  to  do.  There  is  no  use 
in  having  any  statement  of  principles.  There 
should  be  a  sense  of  union  just  through  the 
common  spirit  we  feel.  We  may  differ  in  a 
multitude  of  ways ;  we  may  each  have  our 
own  views  as  to  specific  reforms.  One  may 
be  an  individualist;  another  a  communist; 
a  third  may  lean  to  socialism.  We  may  be¬ 
long  to  different  political  parties.  We  may 
have  our  own  basis  of  philosophy.  One  may 
be  an  intuitionalist ;  another  may  lean  to  utili¬ 
tarianism  ;  some  may  find  their  help  more  from 
Emanuel  Kant,  others  may  draw  it  from 
Hegel  or  John  Stuart  Mill.  We  may  think 
diversely  with  regard  to  the  idea  of  immortal¬ 
ity-  or  of  God. 

But  amid  all  these  differences  there  is  this 
common  purpose :  we  are  convinced  that 
there  is  this  higher  standard.  We  are  to 
keep  on  talking  about  it,  studying  it,  making 
it  the  basis  for  our  judgments  of  ourselves 
and  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  problem 
now  is,  not  what  is  to  be  thought,  but  what  is 
to  be  done.  Human  ambition  has  changed; 
it  is  bent  now  on  getting  something  out  of 


33 


this  life  on  earth.  There  is  no  use  struggling 
against  the  tendency.  The  mastery  over  na¬ 
ture  has  given  the  multitude  a  hope  which  can 
never  again  be  quenched.  While  the  natural 
world  was  so  much  of  a  mystery,  it  cowed 
human  effort.  It  is  still  something  of  a  mys¬ 
tery ;  but  men  have  learned,  nevertheless,  how 
to  use  it.  The  human  will  is  set  now  on  assert¬ 
ing  its  mastery,  determined  to  find  a  life  worth 
living  in  this  present  existence. 

An  Ethical  Movement  must  meet  this  situ¬ 
ation.  Never  in  all  history  has  there  been  an 
epoch  when  civilization  was  in  greater  peril. 
We  may  get  all  the  physical  comforts,  we 
may  acquire  the  mastery  over  nature ;  and  yet 
at  the  same  time  the  finer  feelings  may  die 
out  from  the  hearts  of  men.  “  Man  cannot 
live  by  bread  alone/’  With  these  new  dis¬ 
coveries  there  is  the  appalling  danger  that 
the  human  mind  may  misuse  its  opportunities, 
and  that  the  higher  aspirations  may  perish 
from  neglect,  under  the  influence  of  these  new 
gifts  and  revelations. 

Religious  teaching  can  have  but  one  task  at 
the  present  moment  before  it:  it  must  adjust 
itself  to  these  new  conditions.  For  a  time, 
it  may  have  to  look  away  from  the  subjects 
which  have  heretofore  absorbed  its  attention. 


34 


The  problem  now  is :  how  shall  we  keep  up 
the  higher  standard  of  character,  the  purer 
motives,  which  alone  can  perpetuate  our  civ¬ 
ilization.  Righteousness  now  must  be  made  to 
mean  something,  or  it  will  die  away  from  the 
earth.  It  must  no  longer  be  a  hymn;  it  dare 
no  further  be  simply  a  beautiful  ideal.  Ab¬ 
stract  speculation  must  be  brought  within  the 
sphere  of  utility.  We  must  determine  what 
is  that  Law  of  Right-Living ;  what  it  means 
here,  and  now,  at  this  very  moment,  in  these 
new  conditions ;  what  it  implies  for  us  per¬ 
sonally,  as  well  as  in  the  life  of  the  home; 
what  it  should  be  in  all  our  social,  economic 
and  political  institutions. 

I  know  well  what  it  means  to  discuss  these 
questions.  We  can  all  appreciate  the  diffi¬ 
culty  that  is  involved  in  Applied  Ethics.  The 
capitalist  class  is  anxious  and  worried  when 
we  treat  of  Nationalism,  Trades-Unionism  or 
Socialism.  The  mere  agitation  of  a  question 
appears  often  like  a  concession  to  that  posi¬ 
tion.  Yet  who,  after  all,  should  deal  with 
such  problems,  if  not  Ethical  Teachers? 
These  questions  are  in  everybody’s  thoughts; 
they  will  be  discussed  under  any  circum¬ 
stances.  Surely  it  were  far  better  to  bring 
them  to  some  extent  within  the  sphere  of 


35 


moral  agitation,  than  to  leave  them  as  exclu¬ 
sively  the  problems  of  business  or  eco¬ 
nomics.  The  working  class  is  anxious  that 
we  should  take  sides  with  them,  and  choose 
just  their  reforms.  It  distrusts  us  because 
we  cannot  take  just  their  standpoint.  Never¬ 
theless,  the  Ethical  Leader  is  the  one  indi¬ 
vidual  who  dare  not  side  with  any  class.  He 
is  to  struggle  with  all  his  might  to  inculcate 
that  higher  spirit  of  reform,  that  should  in¬ 
clude  all  classes,  because  it  is  universal. 

It  has  been  said  that  in  laying  this  new 
Emphasis  on  Ethics  wre  are  giving  up  the  old 
faith .  Persons  have  intimated  that  they  could 
not  sympathize  with  us,  because,  as  they  said, 
it  was  impossible  to  surrender  their  feeling 
for  the  prophets  or  for  Jesus.  What  that 
means  it  is  not  easy  for  me  to  understand.  Did 
they  not  talk  about  practical  righteousness  ? 
For  my  own  part,  in  dealing  with  this  vital 
question,  I  feel  myself  nearer  to  the  spirit  of 
Isaiah  and  Jesus  than  when  I  am  attending 
the  service  of  the  Church.  Others  have 
said  that,  what  we  were  trying  to  do  was, 
after  all,  to  convert  men  back  to  the  old  re¬ 
ligions,  to  restore  their  faith  in  the  charac¬ 
ters  of  the  Bible.  What  this  means,  too,  I 
cannot  understand.  If  this  truth  or  spirit 


36 


for  which  we  are  contending,  be  exclusively 
contained  in  the  old  religions;  then  I  say, 
with  all  my  heart,  let  us  all,  every  man  and 
woman,  go  back  and  take  up  the  old  re¬ 
ligions.  My  supreme  attention  is  on  this  one 
fact  or  this  one  consideration.  Whence  it 
came;  who  gave  it  birth;  who  may  claim 
its  possession, — all  that  is  of  no  consequence 
to  me.  Those  are  the  questions  which  we*ean 
safely  leave  history  to  solve,  by  its  own  pro¬ 
cess  of  evolution.  But  this  other  problem, 
what  is  to  be  done  here  and  now  in  elevating 
and  purifying  the  hearts  of  men,  in  lifting 
once  more  the  standard  of  morality,  in 
quickening  and  enlarging  inward  motives, 
this  is  what  we  dare  not  leave  to  the  mere 
external  laws  of  development.  It  is  what  we 
ourselves  must  do  and  accomplish. 

But  while  we  are  centering  our  interest  in 
this  one  direction,  in  what  we  teach  and  in 
what  we  preach;  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten 
that  a  book,  a  sermon  or  an  address  wdiick 
may  not  once  mention  the  names  of  the 
prophets,  of  Jesus  or  of  God,  may  neverthe¬ 
less  be  full  of  the  spirit  of  the  prophets,  of 
Jesus  and  of  God. 

And  so  I  believe  there  should  be  Societies 
organized  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  laying 


37 


this  new  Emphasis  on  Ethics.  Books  may 
be  written  upon  it;  but  that  is  not  enough. 
The  press  may  agitate  it,  and  that  may  help. 
The  Church  may  contribute  its  share.  But 
they  cannot  any  of  them  do  the  work  com¬ 
pletely.  If  we  are  to  bring  a  neglected  ele¬ 
ment  in  religion  back  into  its  true  significance 
and  importance  in  history,  we  may  have  to 
do  it  by  giving,  for  the  time  being,  almost 
our  exclusive  concern  to  it.  In  order  to  ac¬ 
complish  the  result,  it  may  even  be  necessary 
to  give  this  aspect  an  exaggerated  degree  of 
interest. 

Furthermore,  I  believe  that  such  Societies 
should  hold  their  services  and  have  their  ad¬ 
dresses  or  sermons,  not  simply  during  the 
week  days,  but  on  Sunday  mornings.  It  is 
essential  that  the  peculiar  significance  at¬ 
tached  to  that  period  of  the  week,  be  brought 
to  bear  on  this  particular  aspect  of  religion. 
We  must  make  it  emphatically  clear  that 
ethical  problems  are  not  secular.  We  must 
throw  about  them  the  peculiar  feelings  of 
depth,  sacredness  and  consecration,  that  be¬ 
long  to  a  religious  service.  By  doing  this 
we  shall  not  be  antagonizing,  but  rather  help¬ 
ing  forward  the  cause  of  religion.  Christ¬ 
endom  has  consecrated  that  one  day  to  the 


38 


deepest  problems  of  existence.  We  need  to 
take  that  time  for  these  practical  questions 
of  right-living,  in  order  to  make  it  clear  that 
they  too  belong  to  those  deepest  and  most  im¬ 
portant  problems.  By  the  very  separateness 
with  which  we  emphasize  this  other  tendency, 
we  must  establish  its  identity  with  that  which 
is  highest  and  best  in  religion.  People  should 
be  invited  to  the  services,  just  as  they  would 
to  the  services  of  the  Church.  They  may  be 
members  both  of  Church  and  Ethical  Society. 
They  may  go  on  one  Sunday  to  one,  and  on 
another  Sunday  to  the  other.  But  the  Ethical 
Society  should  do  its  work  by  itself,  in  order 
to  give  the  necessary  degree  of  stress  to  its 
efforts  in  the  new  direction. 

But  if  there  should  be  separate  Ethical  So¬ 
cieties  devoted  to  this  one  purpose,  there 
should  also  be  a  special  class  of  lecturers  or 
clergy,  educated  in  this  other  particular  di¬ 
rection.  Instead  of  being  taught  in  compar¬ 
ative  religions,  they  should  have  courses  in 
economics  and  political  science.  Instead  of 
the  study  in  theology,  there  should  be  years 
of  preparation  given  to  the  history  of  philos¬ 
ophy  and  the  science  of  Ethics.  In  place  of 
so  much  time  being  given  to  the  literature  of 
the  Hebrews,  they  should  rather  have  pro- 


39 


longed  training  in  the  ethical  tendencies  of  the 
great  writers  of  the  modern  world.  Instead 
of  constant  devotion  to  abstract  problems, 
they  should  give  their  attention  to  Applied 
Ethics.  They  should  be  familiar  with  the  la¬ 
bor  problem,  with  the  social  and  political  agi¬ 
tation  of  the  day.  Their  one  purpose  should 
be  to  bring  the  moral  standard  to  bear  on 
practical  issues  in  the  sphere  of  commerce, 
social  and  personal  life,  or  the  state.  They 
should  not  be  men  of  the  library  or  the  study ; 
but  in  the  highest  sense,  they  should  be  men 
of  the  world. 

This  Ethical  Movement  must  be  a  practical 
faith.  It  should  be  a  business  man’s  religion. 
It  ought  to  be  a  busy  people’s  religion.  The 
most  cultured  and  refined  can  draw  help  from 
it.  The  most  illiterate  and  ignorant  can  learn 
something  from  it.  Culture  comes  rather  in 
the  very  process  of  living,  than  in  the  search 
after  knowledge.  Refined  feelings  develop 
by  the  way  we  act,  just  as  much  as  through 
any  form  of  worship. 

Religious  teaching  all  over  the  world  needs 
to  lift  on  high  once  more  this  banner  of  jus¬ 
tice  and  right-living.  It  should  beg  and  plead ; 
it  should  urge  that  men  weigh  public  and  pri¬ 
vate  questions  from  this  stand-point.  The 


40 


work  has  begun ;  it  has  touched  the  hearts  of 
the  few.  The  tendency  is  abroad.  Serious 
minds  are  catching  its  spirit.  The  Church 
itself  is  developing  in  this  new  direction.  An 
Ethical  Movement  is  arising  everywhere,  with¬ 
out  distinction  of  sect  or  creed.  It  consists 
of  the  serious  and  earnest  individuals  who, 
in  the  presence  of  this  possible  downfall  of 
high  character  and  nobler  manhood,  are  be¬ 
coming  more  and  more  willing  to  forget  the 
other  differences,  to  lose  sight  of  all  diversi¬ 
ties  of  belief,  in  order  to  concentrate  their  in¬ 
terests  in  rescuing  this  moral  standard  from 
extinction.  The  spirit  which  now  exists 
among  a  few,  may  by  and  by  reach  out  over 
the  world ;  and  then  all  the  world  will  be  an 
Ethical  Society. 

And  so  I  conclude  by  giving,  perhaps,  the 
most  beautiful  expression  that  has  yet  ap¬ 
peared  in  literature,  with  reference  to  a  possi¬ 
ble  Ethical  Church : 

4 6  There  will  be  a  new  church,  founded  on 
46  moral  science;  at  first  cold  and  naked,  a 
66  babe  in  a  manger  again,  the  algebra  and 
64  mathematics  of  ethical  law,  the  church  of 
4  4  men  to  come ;  but  it  will  have  heaven  and 
44  earth  for  its  beams  and  rafters ;  science  for 
44  symbol  and  illustrations ;  it  will  fast  enough 
44  gather  to  itself  beauty,  music,  pictures, 


41 


64  poetry.  Was  never  stoicism  so  stern  and 

-  exigent  as  this  shall  be?  It  shall  send  man 
66  home  to  his  central  solitude;  shame  these 
66  social,  supplicating  manners;  and  make  him 
46  know  that  much  of  the  time  he  must  have 

-  himself  to  his  friend.  He  shall  expect  no  co¬ 
-operation;  he  shall  walk  with  no  compan- 

-  ion.  The  nameless  Thought,  the  nameless 
-Power,  the  super-personal  Heart — he  shall 
-repose  alone  on  that.  He  needs  only  his 

-  own  verdict.  No  good  fame  can  help,  no 

-  bad  fame  can  hurt  him.  The  Laws  are  his 
-consolers;  the  good  Laws  themselves  are 
-alive;  they  know  if  he  have  kept  them; 

-  they  animate  him  with  the  leading  of  great 
-duty  and  an  endless  horizon.  Honor  and 

-  fortune  exist  to  him  who  always  recognizes 
-the  neighborhood  of  the  great  — always 
-feels  himself  in  the  presence  of  high 
-causes.5’  —  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 


..  '.*1^ 


■  •-:  **  v  ^er^tfagjjs 

• y >•* 

.  *-;  -•' 


